Mobile Games
`FRANS MÄYRÄ
`University of Tampere, Finland
`
`The Expanding Field of Mobile Gaming
`
`The International Telecommunication Union
`(ITU) estimated that there were more than six
`billion mobile phone subscriptions in the world
`in 2012. Thanks to miniaturization and the pos-
`sibility to implement mobile video games, today’s
`mobile games are an increasingly notable and
`growing area of game business and culture. An
`expanding range and increasing number of games
`are being produced and published for handheld
`consoles, mobile phones, and tablet devices.
`The expansion of mobile gaming is noteworthy
`also in terms of quality, as mobile games have
`become a site for innovative, new play and game
`design practices. Many of the novel innovations
`that mobile games have introduced benefit from
`the specific characteristics of the mobile media
`ecosystem, including the online digital distri-
`bution channels, new interface modalities, and
`sensor capabilities available in modern mobile
`devices.
`Other significant factors in mobile games and
`game play are the daily contexts and practices
`related to mobile application use. A 2011 study
`of more than 4000 Android phone users found
`that the average user accessed some application
`or another on their handset about 50 times
`per day, for a total duration of more than one
`hour daily. The average session from opening
`an application to closing it, however, lasted only
`71 seconds (Böhmer et al., 2011). Even though
`average gameplay sessions on a mobile device
`are probably longer than that, designing a game
`for the quick and short mobile usage sessions
`is different from creating a typical computer or
`console video game. There are only a few game
`genres that are unique to mobile devices; it is
`possible to access most of the popular video game
`genres also as mobile versions. It is important
`
`to address mobile games in both dimensions: as
`“scaled-down videogames,” and as emerging new
`forms of gameplay, possible only using the oppor-
`tunities that mobile devices and their mobile user
`contexts open up.
`
`Defining a Mobile Game
`
`Despite being a common enough term and
`phenomenon in today’s technologically intense
`societies, it is not necessarily self-evident what
`exactly constitutes and defines a “mobile game.”
`The literature on mobile games is often techni-
`cally focused, and generally moves directly to
`discuss the implementation of games for mobile
`phones and other mobile devices without clarify-
`ing the key concept itself (see, e.g., Hamer, 2007).
`However, there are multiple different kinds of
`mobile devices, and even personal computers
`could be considered “mobile” today, because of
`the popularity of small and lightweight laptop
`computers. The most common ways of under-
`standing mobile games nevertheless relate to
`two distinct lines of game development and
`publishing. The first one is mobile phone games
`and the second relates to handheld electronic
`games and video game consoles. Outside the
`consumer product market there is also important
`work that links mobile games to mobile com-
`puting and augmented reality experimentation,
`for example. Such research has often stimulated
`innovations in consumer electronics and the
`game industry.
`This entry aims to discuss the games designed
`for mobile phones, and while the full treatment
`of mobile games needs also to take into account
`handheld video games and many other portable
`electronic gaming devices, the history and eco-
`nomics in these various areas are so different
`that they invite treatment in separate entries.
`Handheld video games, for example, have much
`closer ties with the major video game console
`manufacturers, while mobile phone game makers
`need to take into account the characteristics of
`multiple different kinds of phone models and
`
`The International Encyclopedia of Digital Communication and Society, First Edition.
`Edited by Robin Mansell and Peng Hwa Ang.
`© 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
`DOI: 10.1002/9781118290743.wbiedcs014
`
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`M O B I L E G A M E S
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`differences in mobile operators’ services. The
`distribution of handheld video games through
`sales in retail stores is also very different from
`the distribution of mobile phone games, which
`either come preinstalled to the handset, or are
`installed by the user over-the-air (OTA), using
`mobile data services. Some phone manufacturers
`have experimented with add-on memory cards as
`a game distribution medium, but without major
`success.
`
`The Long History of Mobile Games
`
`The early history of mobile games does not start
`with the introduction of the first handheld elec-
`tronic games in the late 1970s. Rather, there is
`a continuity that can be tracked from the early
`simple electronic gaming devices such as the
`Merlin by Parker Brothers (1978) to the earlier
`mechanical toys on the one hand, and to ancient
`travelers’ game sets on the other. A deck of gam-
`ing cards or a small version of a board game are
`easy to use while on the road, and the portability
`of such analog gaming devices has no doubt
`played an important part in their evolution and
`popularity. There is evidence of traveling dice and
`board games being used by the Roman emperor
`Claudius (10 bce–ad 54; see Joannou, 2007).
`The idea of playing games while traveling is most
`probably much older than that.
`The digital mobile game can be identified
`as having at least two roots. The early arcade
`video games were miniaturized into handheld
`electronic games and consequently they acted
`as precursors for the handheld video gaming
`consoles. The second strand of evolution was
`intimately linked with the mobile phone as a par-
`ticular kind of application and gaming platform.
`In terms of suitability for gameplay, a dedicated
`handheld gaming device benefits from a form
`factor and controls that are optimized for gam-
`ing. Mobile phones are, in contrast, multipurpose
`devices; therefore generally, in the design of their
`form and keyboard, the phone’s uses (e.g., making
`calls, typing text messages) have been set as the
`top priority.
`In the field of handheld electronic games and
`handheld game consoles, Nintendo has been the
`leader. Originally a playing card company, its first
`major success in consumer electronics (after a few
`
`television game systems) was the Game & Watch
`series (1980–91). This was a series of devices
`that originally featured monochrome, segmented
`LCD screens, each capable of displaying a single
`video game. As the name indicates, the devices
`also doubled as an alarm clock. While the original
`devices had a single screen, dual screen (“multi-
`screen”) games were also published and later color
`screens were used as well. It has been reported
`that more than 43 million Game & Watch devices
`were sold. The series also served as an important
`precursor for the next generations of Nintendo’s
`handheld gaming devices that became even more
`popular. The Game Boy series (1989) was the first
`of these (rechargeable) battery-powered game
`consoles. For the US market, the device was bun-
`dled with a game cartridge for Tetris, the popular
`puzzle video game, a combination that was partly
`responsible for the Game Boy becoming adopted
`widely by “casual gamers” as well as by young
`video game enthusiasts. The handheld form fac-
`tor also appeared to smooth the gender gap in
`video gaming. Nintendo of America reported in
`1995 that 46% of players on the handheld Game
`Boy were female, as contrasted to 29% on NES
`and 14% on SNES consoles (The Gainesville Sun,
`January 15, 1995). The cumulative total sales for
`the Game Boy line of devices have crossed 200
`million units. The popular 32-bit handheld con-
`sole, Nintendo DS (2004–07), proved Nintendo
`was capable of building on top of earlier successes
`while making use of new technologies such as
`color touch screen, wireless connectivity, and
`built-in microphone.
`While the evolution of mobile games for hand-
`held consoles has enjoyed the benefits of a rather
`unified development and publishing environ-
`ment, that has not been the case for mobile phone
`games. Since the 1970s and 1980s, there have
`been many different mobile phone manufacturers
`in the market, each regularly releasing phone
`models that support diverse feature sets. Such
`key factors as the screen size, keyboard, memory,
`processor, operating system, as well as wireless
`capabilities all differ, making game development
`for mobile phone ecosystems a rather challenging
`undertaking. The most popular early mobile
`phone game was a version of arcade game Snake
`(1997), which was delivered preinstalled in Nokia
`handsets and could therefore be found on more
`than 400 million devices (Wright, 2008).
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`Before the smart phone application ecosys-
`tems such as Apple’s iOS and its App Store
`were launched, there were several competing
`development platforms for mobile phone games,
`including Macromedia Flash Lite, Doja of NTT
`DoCoMo, BREW by Qualcomm, and Sun’s Java
`ME. When combined with the early mobile
`internet protocol (WAP), such technologies made
`possible, in the late 1990s, the over-the-air sale,
`download, and installation of a game to a mobile
`phone via a wireless carrier network. Also, text
`messaging (SMS) was used for implementing
`simple games, such as quizzes, where the price of
`each text message was included in the phone bill
`(De Prato et al., 2010; Feijoo, 2012).
`The visibility of such downloadable game con-
`tent was at the time largely decided by placement
`of the game on the “carrier deck,” meaning the
`mobile internet landing page the customers saw
`first on the browser of their handset. Without a
`prominent placement in these operator main-
`tained listings, it was hard to distribute the game.
`With the slow data transfer capabilities and
`small screens of the available mobile phones, the
`operator listings were usually rather limited; for
`example, at one point the US operator Verizon
`Wireless listed about 350 games and its competi-
`tor Sprint about 250 (Rabowsky, 2009, p. 157).
`Most users, however, did not scroll down tens of
`menu screens, and thus placement at the top of
`the deck, along with an immediately recognizable
`title, was critical to success. Tie-in releases based
`on popular movie, television, or book franchises
`were therefore popular choices.
`While mobile “middleware” technologies such
`as Java ME continue to be popular in low-end
`handsets, such as those which run on Nokia’s
`Symbian Series 40 operating system, smart-
`phones have radically changed the face of mobile
`games. In 2003 there was an attempt by Nokia to
`launch a dedicated mobile phone based gaming
`system called N-Gage, but the selection of games,
`prices, and user experience of N-Gage compared
`poorly to those offered by the dedicated handheld
`gaming consoles such as the Game Boy line of
`Nintendo. It was the release of iPhone by Apple
`in 2007, followed by the App Store distribution
`service in 2008, which had the most powerful
`impact on the mobile software and game ecosys-
`tems. In 2013, Apple reported that its users had
`downloaded more than 40 billion applications
`
`from its App Store, and that the store carried at
`that point more than 800,000 mobile applications
`(“apps”). Other similar digital distribution chan-
`nels include Google Play (originally launched in
`2008 as “Android Market”) and Windows Phone
`Store (launched in 2010 as “Windows Phone
`Marketplace”). All such mobile stores provide
`users with access to thousands of applications,
`some of them free, some paid for.
`The rising popularity of mobile application
`ecosystems can be attributed to the better qual-
`ity of mobile games, the better user experience
`provided by touch screen-enabled smartphones,
`the faster access via mobile broadband (3G and
`4G networks), and the successful distribution of
`models provided by other, nonmobile platforms,
`such as Steam (developed by Valve for Win-
`dows computers), Wii Shop Channel, Xbox Live
`Marketplace, and PlayStation Store. In indus-
`try sources, it was estimated that the number
`of smartphone users worldwide exceeded one
`billion in 2012, far surpassing the numbers of any
`other gaming platform, except gaming in personal
`computers. Similarly, the Finnish game devel-
`oper Rovio reported that their popular Angry
`Birds franchise of mobile games had reached the
`cumulative number of one billion downloads in
`2012.
`
`New Directions in Mobile Gaming
`
`Rovio’s successful Angry Birds series represents
`well the mainstream world of mobile games devel-
`oped for contemporary smartphone ecosystems.
`Based on earlier, trusted gameplay formulas, such
`casual games make efficient use of both the touch
`screen interface and the audiovisual strengths of
`smartphones’ processor and memory capabilities.
`Many of these types of games are first released
`as free downloadable versions, then they tempt
`players to upgrade into full, paid versions of the
`applications, which – because of the benefits
`of scale – can be priced at an affordable level,
`sometimes at less than a dollar. An alternative
`approach, called the “freemium” model, relies
`on in-app purchases of “premium” features such
`as better equipment or additional game levels
`that take the otherwise free game beyond its
`built-in limitations. While commercially suc-
`cessful, such techniques have been criticized by
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`players and developers alike. The low complexity
`and effortless gameplay that characterize casual
`mobile games do not necessarily attract dedicated
`gamers and some critics consider the moneti-
`zation strategies employed in freemium games
`as unethical (see, for example, the discussion in
`www.gamasutra.com).
`innovation,
`In addition to business model
`mobile games have also been at the forefront
`of some technological experimentation. There
`are modes of play that are only available for
`gaming on mobile devices, such as location
`based gaming. While there are several decades
`of history in mobile and ubiquitous computing
`research, which also includes such game experi-
`mentation, it was in the early 2000s that the first
`commercial location based mobile games were
`launched. Long before that there had been vari-
`ous kinds of treasure hunt-style games that later
`were turned into the “geocaching” hobby with
`the availability of precise GPS navigation devices
`(Montola, Stenros, & Waern, 2009, pp. 32–34).
`The first commercial location based games such
`as BotFighters (It’s Alive, 2001) used less precise
`cell location services and SMS messages to relay
`game commands and information between the
`players and the game server. The augmentation of
`physical, urban environments with virtual gam-
`ing content has gradually increased, leading to
`mobile devices used in a rich range of alternative
`reality games (ARGs e.g., The Nokia Game series,
`1999–2005), pervasive games (e.g., Can You
`See Me Now?, 2001) and massively multiplayer
`mobile games (e.g., Shadow Cities, 2010). Such
`complex forms of mobile gaming are growing in
`popularity but have not reached anywhere near
`the level that casual mobile games enjoy.
`Thousands of new mobile applications are
`added to the different online application stores
`every month, and games are the most popular
`category among their hundreds of millions of
`users. Consequently, the commercial and cul-
`tural significance of mobile games has greatly
`expanded from their modest beginnings in the
`1990s. Today, games in mobile devices are seri-
`ously challenging the PC and console gaming,
`particularly if tablet devices are included in the
`mobile device category. Mobile gaming is also
`becoming increasingly integrated with popular
`social networks, such as Facebook. Industry
`reports point toward the majority of the one
`
`billion Facebook users actively using the service
`with their mobile devices. There is an increasing
`number of mobile games that provide some kind
`of online social gaming experience, including
`comparing top scores among one’s social net-
`work, or sending challenges, gifts, or invitations
`to one’s friends from inside the mobile gaming
`application. It is also noteworthy that in some
`industry studies, a slight majority of mobile social
`gamers is reported to be female.
`
`Research and the Future of Mobile
`Gaming
`
`Research into mobile games has not formed the
`mainstream of contemporary game studies, and
`the study of mobile phones has mostly focused
`on the communications element rather than on
`mobile game studies. Nevertheless, there are sev-
`eral notable strands of research work that relate to
`this field.
`In Europe in particular a few research centers
`have carried out sustained research work on
`mobile games. One of the background factors
`has been the European Union, which has been
`active in its support of mobile game research and
`development. For example, the “Mobile Enter-
`tainment and Industry and Culture” (MGAIN)
`research project (2001–04) aimed to situate
`mobile games in the wider context of mobile
`“content” and entertainment
`industries, and
`suggested that mobile gaming would continue
`to grow in popularity, alongside other mobile
`applications and services, such as those related to
`mobile music, messaging services, multimedia,
`gambling, and location based services (MGAIN,
`2003). Another large European research project,
`“Integrated Project in Pervasive Gaming” (IPerG,
`2004–08), focused on the new artistic, techno-
`logical, and business opportunities related to how
`new mobile technologies allow the extension of
`gaming experiences in spatial, social, and tem-
`poral dimensions (Montola, Stenros, & Waern,
`2009). IPerG produced both scholarship that
`mapped out some of the design space and player
`experiences opened up by mobile technologies,
`as well as several prototype games on emerg-
`ing gaming subgenres such as mobile treasure
`hunts, urban adventure games, and massively
`multiplayer mobile games.
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`The sociology and ethnography of mobile
`communications have also touched upon mobile
`gaming. The work of Larissa Hjorth is particu-
`larly noteworthy, as she has carried out substantial
`work on the sociocultural dimensions of mobile
`gaming cultures in the Asia Pacific region. She has
`shown how both video games and mobile phones
`serve important roles as extensions of a user’s
`identity and as sites of user creativity in people’s
`everyday lives (Hjorth, 2011). In Europe, the EU
`Kids Online project has produced research that
`reports children’s use of online technologies in
`Europe, indicating that gameplay is among the
`most popular children’s activities online today, but
`also that problematic behaviors such as bullying
`have become common elements in the children’s
`lives (Livingstone, Haddon, & Görzig, 2012). In
`Finland, the Finnish Player Barometer survey has
`identified a significant trend showing an increase
`in mobile gaming in 2009–11, and has pointed
`out how women and girls play mobile games
`more actively than they do traditional computer
`or video games (Karvinen & Mäyrä, 2011).
`As the popularity and capabilities of mobile
`technologies continue to increase, it is very likely
`that mobile applications and services will grow
`increasingly sophisticated, with context-aware
`capabilities that combine gameplay with other
`incentives, such as health, learning, or marketing.
`This is often linked to the concept of “gamifica-
`tion,” meaning application of game elements in
`non-entertainment purposes (Deterding et al.,
`2011). Context-aware gaming integrates into the
`logic of games multiple sources of information
`including calendar data, location, and presence
`of, for example, RFID tagged objects, physical
`activity that also includes gestures, body data
`(e.g., arousal or stress level), as well as contextual
`information provided by other people and social
`networks (Tester, 2006). All these pieces of infor-
`mation can also be used to “gamify” everyday
`experiences and activities, supporting the motiva-
`tion to have a healthy walk rather than to drive the
`car, or to provide an incentive to pick up a special
`offer from a nearby restaurant. The applications
`of gamification in mobile learning (m-learning)
`are also receiving much interest (Kapp, 2012). The
`popular location sharing application Foursquare
`has been one of the pioneers in applying badges,
`titles, and other game-like rewards into its user
`experience. The ethics and actual benefits of
`
`gamification nevertheless continue to be debated
`(see, for example, Bogost, 2011).
`As a category, mobile games have developed
`into multiple directions on their own. The conver-
`gence of gaming platforms is also an important
`development: in some ecosystems, and by using
`techniques such as game streaming, it is now
`possible to change from one type of device to
`another and yet continue the same game, which
`is a development that contributes toward the
`boundaries between mobile, console, and PC
`games beginning to erode. The key characteristics
`of gaming on a small, mobile device nevertheless
`remain distinctive and unique at their core.
`
`SEE ALSO: Online Games; Online Games and
`Business Models; Online Games, Casual; Online
`Games and Children; Online Games and Genre
`
`References
`
`Bogost, I. (2011, August 8) Gamification is bull-
`shit. Ian Bogost – Videogame Theory, Criticism,
`Design. Retrieved from http://www.bogost.com/
`blog/gamification_is_bullshit.shtml
`Böhmer, M., Hecht, B., Schöning, J., Krüger, A., &
`Bauer, G. (2011). Falling asleep with Angry Birds,
`Facebook and Kindle: A large scale study on mobile
`application usage. Proceedings of the 13th interna-
`tional conference on human computer interaction with
`mobile devices and services, (pp. 47–56). Mobile-
`HCI’11. New York, NY: ACM.
`De Prato, G., Feijóo, C., Nepelski, D., Bogdanow-
`icz, M., & Simon, J. P. (2010). Born digital/grown
`digital. Assessing the future competitiveness of the
`EU videogame software industry. Seville, Spain:
`JRC–IPTS.
`Deterding, S., Dixon, D., Khaled, R., & Nacke, L. (2011).
`From game design elements to gamefulness: Defining
`“gamification.” Proceedings of the 15th International
`Academic Mindtrek Conference: Envisioning Future
`Media Environments, Tampere. Retrieved from
`http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2181037.2181040
`Feijoo, C. (2012). An exploration of the mobile gam-
`ing ecosystem from developers’ perspective. In P.
`Zackariasson & T. L. Wilson (Eds.), The video game
`industry: Formation, present state, and future (pp.
`76–98). Routledge Studies in Innovation, Organiza-
`tion, and Technology 24. New York, NY: Routledge.
`Hamer, C. (2007). Creating mobile games: Using Java ME
`platform to put the fun into your mobile device and cell
`phone. Berkley, CA: Apress.
`
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`M O B I L E G A M E S
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`Hjorth, L. (2011). Mobile media in the Asia-Pacific:
`Gender and the art of being mobile. London, UK:
`Routledge.
`Joannou, J. (2007). Have chess set – will travel. A jour-
`ney in four parts. Part 1: The early years. The Chess
`Collector, 16(2), 12–18.
`Kapp, K. M. (2012). The gamification of learning and
`instruction: Game-based methods and strategies for
`training and education. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.
`Karvinen, J., & Mäyrä, F. (2011). Pelaajabarometri
`2011: Pelaamisen muutos. TRIM Research Reports
`6. Tampere: University of Tampere. Retrieved from
`http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:978-951-44-8567-1
`Livingstone, S. M., Haddon, L., & Görzig, A. (Eds.)
`(2012). Children, risk and safety on the internet:
`Research and policy challenges in comparative perspec-
`tive. Bristol, UK: Policy Press.
`in Europe:
`MGAIN (2003). Mobile entertainment
`Current state of
`the art. Mobile Entertainment
`Industry and Culture. Retrieved from http://
`s3.amazonaws.com/zanran_storage/
`www.knowledge.hut.fi/ContentPages/1120235.pdf
`Montola, M., Stenros, J., & Waern, A. (2009). Pervasive
`games: Theory and design. San Francisco, CA: Morgan
`Kaufmann.
`Interactive entertainment: A
`Rabowsky, B. (2009).
`videogame industry guide. Oxnard, CA: Radiosity
`Press.
`Tester, J. (2006). All the world’s a game: The future
`of
`context-aware gaming. Technology Horizons
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`Program. Palo Alto, CA: Institute for the Future.
`Retrieved from http://www.iftf.org/uploads/media/
`SR-997_Context_Aware_Gaming.pdf
`Wright, C. (2008). A brief history of mobile games.
`PocketGamer, December 22. Retrieved from http://
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`of+Mobile+Games/feature.asp?c=10618
`
`Further Reading
`
`Katz, J. E. (Ed.) (2008). Handbook of mobile communi-
`cation studies. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
`
`Frans Mäyrä, PhD, is Professor of Information
`Studies and Interactive Media, with specialization
`in digital culture and game studies, at the Univer-
`sity of Tampere, Finland. He heads the University
`of Tampere Game Research Lab, and has taught
`and studied digital culture and games since the
`early 1990s. His research interests include game
`cultures, meaning making through playful inter-
`action, online social play, borderlines, identity, as
`well as transmedial fantasy and science fiction.
`
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